This is bad," Kyotaro muttered to himself. "After everything that has happened, their arrival can only mean disaster." Smoke filled the air, and the sound of armored vehicles shattered the fragile silence. Turning toward the source of the noise, Kyotaro saw the Fire Tribe approaching the village.
Panic spread like wildfire. The villagers scrambled around , to flee. Some grabbed their families and ran for the dense forest, while others, in desperation for mercy, approached the fire soldiers with their hands raised.
"Help us! Please, we need help!" a villager cried out, clutching a broken arm. His voice was hoarse with desperation.
"What element are you?" one of the soldiers asked icily.
The villager's body quaked as he stammered, "Earth… I use earth…"
The soldier didn't flinch. A blaze burst from his hand, and the villager screamed as fire enveloped him.
"Arrgghhh!!" The screams didn't last long, replaced only by the crackling of fire and the acrid smell of sizzling flesh.
But the Fire Tribe showed no quarter.
"What element are you?" another soldier asked, his finger pointed at a terrified villager.
I am a user of fire," the man said in a quivering voice.
"Prove it!" the soldier yelled.
The man hesitated then turned and ran, his will to survive the stronger of the two emotions battling within him. "Spare my life, please!" he yelled as he ran, but he was running too slowly. A fireball engulfed him in its fiery embrace, silencing his screams.
The village was thrown into disarray. Screams and flames littered the atmosphere. A number of villagers who could utilize fire got together, hoping to make it through.
"What are you guys doing here?" one soldier sneered at the group.
"We are the superior ones here. We are fire users," one of the villagers stepped in front, faking confidence.
One after another, they lit small fires in their hands as proof of their devotion. The soldiers gathered them all up and took them to armored trucks.
"In your next world, you would be born a fire user," one soldier said with a smile, as he watched the group board the vehicle .
Kyotaro was hiding, crouched behind something, when a blood-splattered survivor stumbled toward him, his face white, his breathing ragged.
"They… they're asking what element you are," the man wheezed. "If you're not one of them… they burn you."
Kyotaro's mind was racing. The little girl beside him, her cheeks stained with tears, stared up at him with wide, terrified eyes.
"At least I can save somebody. She's just a child," he thought bitterly.
"We gotta go," he said suddenly, taking her hand. And together, they sprinted into the woods.
The woods were alive with panic: villagers who had somehow managed to flee were scattered, huddling wordlessly beneath the trees. The fear was palpable. Kyotaro crouched beneath a low-hanging branch, the girl beside him clutching her knees, her small body trembling.
Why is this happening?" she whispered. "We didn't do anything wrong. How… how did everything fall apart so fast? Just days ago, we were all happy. Now it's all gone. We're going to die, aren't we?"
Kyotaro's jaw clenched as he fought for words. "No. We're not dying here," he said, firm.
"Why would you say that?" she snarled. Her voice was shaking with anger, but also tinged with fear. "They'll find us. They'll burn us alive, just like my mother."
He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came. What could he say? There was a soft crackling of fire from somewhere, and his stomach just about bottomed out. He could feel the heat beginning to build in the air as an orange glow started filtering through the trees.
"The forest…" Kyotaro's voice trailed off. "They're burning it."
Flames swept along, engulfing everything in its sights. Villagers screamed, tugging out their children, running for life. Some couldn't make it, the fire claiming them prior to their making it away. Kyotaro tightened his grasp on the little girl's hand and pulled her through the sea of fire. Every breath felt like defeat as smoke lined their lungs; this little girl began to cough hysterically, the small body growing weaker with every step.
"Stay with me!" Kyotaro urged. But her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground, choking on the smoke.
"I can't breathe," she gasped.
Kyotaro knelt beside her, shaking her shoulder. "Get up! You can do this!" But her body went limp, and her eyes fluttered closed.
"No!" he exclaimed, his voice cracking. His eyes stung with tears as the realization hit him-she was gone. The flames roared louder around him, forcing him to his feet, in flight.
By the time he finally emerged from that forest, there was nothing that resembled the village of his life. The place that had so neatly taken him in was a smoldering graveyard with a lot of bodies heaped together, burnt to unrecognizable pieces. Soldiers of the Fire Tribe were roaming the ruins, looking for survivors.
Kyotaro's breath hitched as one of the soldiers finally spotted him. The man's eyes gleamed with malice as he stepped forward, the flames dancing in his palm.
"What element are you?" the soldier demanded.
Kyotaro's mind went blank. "What. What?" he stuttered. "This is a mistake.
The soldier snarled and threw a fireball at him. Kyotaro dived sideways; the heat grazed his arm. Scrambling up, he ran, dodging through the ruins of houses. His heart thudding in his chest, he darted into a little hut and seized a pole lying on the ground.
The sound of footsteps grew louder as the soldier neared. Pressing himself against the wall, Kyotaro held his breath. As he entered, Kyotaro swung the stick with all his strength and hit the man's head. The soldier reeled, and Kyotaro plunged forward, throttling him until he went limp.
As Kyotaro came out into the open from the hut, he found himself surrounded. Soldiers from the Fire Tribe pressed in, their weapons at the ready.
"What element are you?" one of them growled.
Memories of Roku flooded Kyotaro's mind the way he laughed warmly, the encouragement in the most desperate of times. "You're stronger than you think, Kyotaro," Roku had once told him. And now Roku was gone-just like everybody else.
Kyotaro watched as fire consumed what remained of the village. His fists clenched. His nails dug deep into his palms and drew blood. Anger swelled in his chest, a hot, inflexible thing.
"I won't let it end like this!" Kyotaro roared, his voice breaking.
Heat surged through his body, wild and uncontrollable. The air shimmered around him, and suddenly his body was on fire. Flames licked his skin without burning it. He screamed as the fire grew, brighter and hotter.
The soldiers hesitated, the smug expressions replaced with shock. "He's—he's one of us?" one of them stammered, stepping back.
Kyotaro's blurred vision from tears, yet the fire burned brighter. He didn't understand how-it didn't matter. All that mattered was that the fire in his gut finally had found a way to pour out into the world around him.
With the soldiers moving towards him to hold him back, Kyotaro let the flames die out. His fists did not uncurl, and the determination in him began to firm up.
"Because of you," Kyotaro muttered, his voice all a-quiver with ire. "It is all gone.
The flames reignited in his palm, stronger and more controlled. He glared at the soldiers, his voice steady despite the fire burning inside him.
"I'll find you," he vowed, "and I'll kill you."